{"id":159326,"date":"2026-02-11T02:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/159326\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T02:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:40:08","slug":"tourists-coming-to-el-paso-note-high-prices-ahead-of-event-stacked-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/159326\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourists coming to El Paso note high prices ahead of event-stacked weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas\u00a0(KTSM<\/a>) \u2014 El Paso is gearing up for one of its biggest weekends of the year as four major events are set to take place simultaneously across the city on May 2\u20133, drawing thousands of visitors and creating what experts say will be a significant economic boost.<\/p>\n

The K-pop group BTS is expected to\u00a0pack\u00a0the Sun Bowl Stadium for two back\u2011to\u2011back shows, but\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0far from the only\u00a0performers. Music fans will also have Sol Summit in Downtown El Paso and Michelada Fest at\u00a0Ascarate\u00a0Park, while pop culture lovers head to Comic Con at the\u00a0Convention\u00a0Center.<\/p>\n

With such high demand, visitors are already discovering that hotels and travel costs are surging.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever people come here, they\u2019re coming to a two\u2011nation vacation,\u201d said\u00a0UTEP economics professor\u00a0Tom Fullerton.<\/p>\n

El Paso\u2019s growing tourism appeal within a tri\u2011state region\u00a0became\u00a0evident\u00a0after Coldplay sold out the Sun\u00a0Bowl Stadium in 2025.\u00a0The city\u00a0is rising\u00a0quickly as a travel destination for 2026, attracting major artists and fans from across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jacob Roth, who is traveling more than\u00a02,000 miles\u00a0from New Jersey to attend the BTS concert, said El Paso was simply an easier city to book.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing from Jersey,\u00a0why bother trying to secure tickets for New York when you get so many other states around here trying to go to New York as well?\u201d said Roth.<\/p>\n

While tickets were easier to obtain, some fans say hotel prices were the\u00a0real challenge.<\/p>\n

One fan traveling from Virginia told KTSM that securing a room was difficult, and prices were far higher than expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping to spend $45\u2013$60 for a room for one night\u2026 but the room we got was $130, and that\u2019s too much,\u201d\u00a0she said.<\/p>\n

Another fan from Oklahoma said options were so limited that the group had to book in Anthony, Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t find any hotels left for my group of four unless we paid over $2,000 for our stay,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Fullerton says the spike in hotel prices is typical\u00a0and necessary\u00a0when occupancy rates surge. Data\u00a0from the Border Region Modeling\u00a0Project\u00a0forecasting\u00a0the trend will\u00a0likely continue\u00a0through 2026 and 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an important part of a growing and prosperous segment of the economy,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cMany metropolitan economies in Texas are happy if they can reach at least 60% occupancy for the year as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fullerton\u00a0added that other sectors, including retail and restaurants, stand to benefit as well.<\/p>\n

Roth said the costs\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0stop him from enjoying both the concert and the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to secure a good spot in the Sun Bowl, so I\u2019m excited to see how that is,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m\u00a0excited to see a little bit more of the area.\u00a0I heard\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0all sold out now, so\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0very excited\u00a0to experience that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A review of hotel listings from May 1\u20134 shows that while a few rooms\u00a0remain, prices range from $200 to more than $800 per night\u00a0in the downtown area.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas\u00a0(KTSM) \u2014 El Paso is gearing up for one of its biggest weekends of the year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[8443,138,140,139,40753,498,27,7081],"class_list":{"0":"post-159326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-downtown-el-paso","9":"tag-el-paso","10":"tag-el-paso-headlines","11":"tag-el-paso-news","12":"tag-hotel-prices","13":"tag-ktsm","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-travel-destination"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}